GLENS FALLS — For a lot of reasons, the Albany Devils would like to put Friday night's 4-2 loss to the Adirondack Phantoms behind them.

It will be a little harder for Devils forward Mattias Tedenby, who spend the night in a Glens Falls hospital after a severe facial laceration.

Tedenby, in his first American Hockey League game in 34 days, was crashing the net in the third period when he was cut by the skate of a Phantoms defenseman.

"He lost his balance," said Adirondack coach Terry Murray without identifying the player, "and as Tedenby went to the net, he (the defenseman) leaned over, lost his balance and his back leg kicked up and caught him. It's nerve-racking, those kinds of cuts. I've seen them before. It's not good."

Blood gushed from Tedenby immediately. At one point he tried to skate off, but referee Trent Knorr ordered Tedenby to stay on the ice as the Albany training staff came out.

"You want to make sure it wasn't the neck," teammate Chris McKelvie said. "Once you find out it wasn't the neck, you relax a little. I'm pretty sure it was part of his face, which is a lot better than his neck because it's not life-threatening."

"He obviously was in a lot of distress," said Devils coach Rick Kowalsky, who wasn't sure of the severity. "I heard it was a pretty good gash."

To make matters worse, Tedenby received a minor penalty for goaltender interference against the Phantoms' Scott Munroe, who made 31 saves. "Obviously," Kowalsky said, "the cut has nothing to do with it."

Tedenby was reassigned Jan. 28 to Albany after playing four NHL games, but a hip injury scratched him from the previous six starts.

He had played a strong game to that point, as had most of the Devils after a frenzied opening 111/2 minutes in which all of the significant scoring took place.

"Once we started playing our game," McKelvie said, "we played a pretty solid game, especially in our offensive zone. Unfortunately, we weren't rewarded."

The Devils never led, twice answering Phantoms goals — including a short-handed tally by McKelvie — before Rob Bordson scored what proved to be the game winner 11:13 into the first period.

"We were sloppy defensively," Kowalsky said. "We didn't move the puck or read their forecheck well. ... There were a lot of rebounds sitting there, which made it interesting. They got the three quick goals, but as I told them after the first (period), from the red line in offensively, we were great. We were buzzing."

Albany, which held a 33-31 edge in shots on goal, had won six of the past eight meetings against Adirondack, including the previous three at the Civic Center.

"Albany's got our number all year long," Murray said. "We're 2-6 against them coming into this game, and there are four games left. We'd like to be able to get a couple of those games. If you're going to climb up the ladder, clearly you have to win some games in your own division."